Gina Lance

What a delightful joint! A corner warehouse on Sunset Boulevard adorned with every manner of graffiti and absolutely stuffed with aisles and aisles of LPs, DVDs, CDs, videos, cassette tapes—and even eight-track tapes. That’s Amoeba Music. Trust me, you’ll find some of the best buys in town. And Amoeba’s no piker. They support many AIDS organizations and other charities, as well. (There are three locations: Berkeley, San Francisco, and L.A.) As I flip through the Dean Martin CDs (love the classics!), I brush elbows with someone looking through the Julie London bin. It’s an acquaintance I’ve met at several AIDS benefits but never really got to know—Gina Lance.

Gina is one of the founders and editor-in-chief of GIRL TALK magazine, an attractive and wonderfully outré publication dedicated to “enjoying the fun of the Transgender lifestyle.” Gina speaks around the country about celebrating one’s diversity through a positive self-image. Gina has been featured on numerous radio programs, and on television shows on MTV, E!, FOX, and NBC. GIRL TALK works with several ASOs, including being co-sponsors for Quest for the Cover, a transgender beauty pageant whose proceeds benefit APAIT (Asian Pacific AIDS Intervention Team), and whose winner graces the cover of GIRL TALK. [The first crown went to Alexis Rivera (Ruby’s Rap, September 2002).]

As we lean against the Keely Smith and Nancy Sinatra bins, we do a verbal fugue.

Ruby Comer: I’ve noticed more and more that you and GIRL TALK are linked to various charities.

Gina Lance: We try to help as much as we can. I always thought that when people call you and ask, “Can you help?,” I immediately respond, “What do you need?”

That’s nice, Gina. Have you lost anyone to this hellish disease?

Uh,-huh [she answers as if I should already know]. I have friends who are HIV-positive and I have had friends who’ve died from AIDS. It’s so terrible to see a life cut short like that. In 1998, I published a pin-up calendar called “Hollywood TV’s” and one of the girls from that passed away.  Renee Russell was twenty-four and gorgeous. She simply didn’t take her meds, and I believe it was from depression. Fighting the depression can be almost as hard as fighting the disease. 

Certainly so. How do you handle the loss?

I lost my parents when I was fifteen-years-old. When you lose somebody you just keep them with you. The memories and what they gave you become a part of you. You never lose their wisdom and their friendship.

I like that. What are your thoughts  on the afterlife?

I’m from upstate New York, and there are a lot of ghosts up there. I’ve experienced poltergeists myself. It’s like Ghostbusters back there! I don’t think there are mean ghosts; it’s electrical energy. I don’t know. There’s something there though....

Do you have any statistics on AIDS in the transgender community?

It’s hard to tell because it is such a big umbrella. You have the basic cross dressers who can be straight, bi, or gay. Many of the straight ones are married, so it’s probably not that big of a problem. [She ponders a moment, eyes a Julie London album she’s been searching for, grabs it, grins, and continues.] I think AIDS awareness is a lot better than what it was. APAIT even has people who show up at clubs where transgender people gather and hand out contraceptives. They pop it right in their face. They’ve got a lot of balls—er, they have no balls! [We laugh.]

You address AIDS in GIRL TALK. In fact, part of your motto says: Be Safe.

Yes. “Get Dressed, Get Out, Be Safe, and Have Fun!” The CDC will occasionally run ads with us gals on AIDS prevention. I’ve never seen a CDC ad in another transgender publication.

Congrats on a chic glossy magazine, Gina! I know it recently went on-line.

And what an international response we have gotten! It helps get our message out around the world even more than we did before. Nice to run into you, Ruby. [She dashes off to the nearest cash register to buy her latest find.]

Interested in being Queen? The next Quest for the Cover is held in April. For more information log on to www.girltalkmag.com.

Ruby Comer is an independent journalist from the Midwest who is happy to call Hollywood her home away from home. Reach her by e-mail at MsRubyComer@aol.com.

February 2004